Ailing pets getting hyperbaric chamber treatment

Dr. Justin Shmalberg pushes Valentino into the hyperbaric chamber at the UF Small Animal Hospital on Wednesday, Jan. 9, 2012 in Gainesville, Fla. for Gainesville Magazine.

Matt Stamey/Staff photographer

The Associated Press

Published: Tuesday, February 26, 2013 at 11:08 a.m.

Last Modified: Tuesday, February 26, 2013 at 12:41 p.m.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Hyperbaric chambers have been used for decades to treat divers with the bends, burn victims and people with traumatic injuries, but in Florida and a handful of other states they're increasingly being used on ailing pets.

Doctors at the University of Florida's College of Veterinary Medicine have recently used an oxygen chamber on dogs, cats, ferrets, rabbits and one monkey.

Veterinarian and professor Justin Shmalberg said the capsule has been used to treat animals that have been bitten by rattlesnakes, hit by cars and those with infected wounds, among other things.

"Any place we have swelling of tissue, we oftentimes are thinking about the hyperbaric chamber as something we could do to decrease that," he said.

Shmalberg said the chamber's high-pressure atmosphere of pure oxygen appears to help reduce swelling and aid healing time. He added that the school will begin clinical trials this summer to determine how - or even if - the hyperbaric chamber really is effective in speeding recoveries and healing animals.

There is little research on hyperbaric treatments and pets, although veterinarians who use the chambers note that most of the research for human hyperbaric treatments comes from trials done on rabbits and rats.

"We want to make sure there's really good science behind it," said Dr. Diane Levitan, who owns Peace Love Pets Veterinary Care in Commack, N.Y. "It's not a panacea. There are specific reasons why this is helpful."

Levitan has a hyperbaric chamber in her practice and is writing an article for a veterinary journal on the treatment. Like Shmalberg, she has seen an improved rate of healing for certain conditions such as herniated discs, abscesses and even post-radiation swelling.

In humans, insurance companies will pay for hyperbaric treatment for several conditions, including carbon monoxide poisoning, crush injuries and bone marrow infections, among other things. Some insurance companies won't pay for hyperbaric treatment for wounds or ulcers, saying that it's an "unproven" therapy — but some people swear by the treatment and seek out private clinics.

It's the same with pet owners; veterinarians with oxygen chambers say that people with sick pets often will often research the treatment and request it after becoming familiar with it through human medicine.

"It is a very new modality for treatment in veterinary medicine," said Dr. Andrew Turkell of Calusa Veterinary Center in Boca Raton.

The devices used by UF, Levitan and Turkell are about the size of a loveseat and are manufactured in Florida by a Boca Raton company named Hyperbaric Veterinary Medicine. Turkell was the first doctor to sign a contract with Hyperbaric Veterinary Medicine, and estimates that he's used the chamber 750-800 times in the past year and a half.

"I find that it's really very effective for any kind of trauma," he said, adding that he's seen improvements in pets that have been hit by cars that have been subsequently treated in the chamber.

Wayne McCullough, the company's CEO, said that most veterinary offices can't afford to buy the capsules outright — chambers for humans cost between $50,000 and $150,000 each — so the company gives the clinics the chambers and then receives a cut on each treatment done by the veterinarian. At the UF clinic, treatment costs about $125 per session.

McCullough said that his employees deliver and train veterinarians on how to use the capsule. Working with 100 percent oxygen can be dangerous, which is why pets going inside the chamber are patted down with water before the treatment so their fur doesn't conduct static electricity and cause a fire.

On Feb. 20, 2012, the high-oxygen chamber at an equine sports medicine center near Ocala exploded and caused part of a building to collapse and killed a worker and the horse inside.

Erica Marshall, 28, an employee at Kesmarc Equine Rehabilitation facility, died when the hyperbaric chamber she was operating exploded. A visiting observer from Ireland, Sorcha Moneley, 33, was wounded.

Marion County Sheriff’s Detective Rhonda Stroup said a veterinarian had prescribed hyperbaric treatment for the horse. The animal had been in the chamber at least four other times without incident. The male horse was from Stonehall Farm in Virginia.

The machine that exploded was not one of McCullough’s chambers.

A final report issued by the Sheriff’s Office concluded the blast was an accident. The report stated the horse that died was wearing steel horseshoes and kicked the inside walls of the chamber, removing an inside protective layer and causing sparks before the explosion.

Dr. Dorie Amour, the director of Emory University's wound care clinic, suggested that hyperbaric therapy in pets be a last-resort treatment. It "has to be a therapy used when there is no alternative. Or a therapy used for a very serious problem for which there hasn't been a solution."

Pet owners such as Mike Ray, the owner of Maggie, an 11-year-old dachshund with a gaping wound and recurring infection in her back paw, say they're willing to give it a try — and spend the extra money to do so at the University of Florida animal hospital.

Maggie has been through a handful of hyperbaric treatments, and Dr. Schmalberg and Ray say they've noticed a difference after two sessions in the capsule. New fur is growing where raw flesh was once exposed.

"Whatever it takes, we're going do and we'll find a way to get it done," Ray said as he and his wife waited for Maggie to finish her oxygen therapy. "Because we need to get her healed."

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